A load center is an enclosure used in electrical systems of all types for both conventional homes and commercial buildings for holding overcurrent devices or circuit breakers. A load center is the central point of distribution and overcurrent protection of an electrical system which includes panel, breaker panel, breaker box, and main panel. For safety and convenience purposes, all overcurrent devices that protect structure wiring should be in a central location. Loads such as lights, electric motors, and appliances which consume electricity are the energy consuming devices in any electrical system. All of the wiring supplying the electrical loads in a building come together at individual breakers in the load center. The number of overcurrent devices in a load center is dictated by the total electrical consumption of the building and the type of load. A single breaker may protect many electrical receptacles.
An electric load center also generally consists of an insulated basepan on which several bus bars, neutral bars, neutral tie bars and other electrical components have been secured. Traditionally, electrical components have been secured to the basepan of a load center by using secondary hardware or common fastening devices such as screws and bolts. This can be cumbersome, time consuming to apply, uneconomical, require extra parts, and most importantly can impart stresses to the component being secured and adversely effect the structural integrity of the component. Similarly, heat staking or the plastic deformation of posts in a plastic basepan has also been employed to secure busbars to a basepan. The heat staking process requires a large amount of energy and time during the assembly process to achieve the desired amount of deformation. Similarly, the heat staking process imparts stresses which concentrate at the face of the basepan where the base of the post intersects the basepan to form comers. Such stress can significantly impair the integrity of the connection by causing a fracture of the post, loss of the integrity of the connection, and a decrease in the service life of the basepan and the load center. A need has therefore developed for an improved fastening device that will secure electrical components to a basepan.
Also, prior art attachment methods between the neutral bar and the basepan are unsatisfactory. There is a need for simplified assembly, mounting and securing of the neutral bar to the basepan. This is accomplished by providing a configuration of the neutral bar for which the neutral bar is attached by means of applying a downward vertical force to fix the neutral bar to the supporting basepan and does not require the use of screws or heat staking thereby reducing the number of components in the load center and facilitating the mounting of the neutral bar to the basepan.